198 



BIRD STUDIES WITH A CAMERA 



unresisting. Some were on the ground, others in 

 the bushy mangroves, some were coming from tlie 

 egg, others were learning to iiy ; hut one and all — 

 in a chorus of croaks, barks, and screams, which 

 rings in nij^ ears whenever I think of the exjjerience 

 — united in demanding that I leave the town. If I 

 approached too near, their cries were doubled in 

 violence and accompanied by vicious lunges with 

 their bills, which were snapjped together with a 

 })istol-like report."" As I walked from tree to tree, 

 examining the noisy young birds that were climb- 

 ing about the branches, I seemed to be passing from 



cage to cage in a z(i(")logical garden; and as I en- 

 tered that part of th(^ island where the nests were 

 on the ground,"" every bird that could walk left 

 its home, and soon T was driving a great flock of 



